St Barts Continues to Go Green

St Barts may be a small island, but it's a giant in environment-friendly initiatives.

Recycling of plastic, glass, aluminum cans and steel/tin cans has been in effect for many years.

Recently, electric cars and electric motorcycles have begun to arrive.

Last year, Michel Magras championed an idea to use wind turbines to generate electricity. As a result, a feasibility study was planned. Phase One of the project will involve installing four to six turbines along the water in Toiny. It is projected that these turbines would continually produce 4.5 to 6 megawatts of power that could be sold to EDF, the electric company on the island.

A wind turbine has already been installed at a private residence in Lurin

Energies Saint-Barth is offering solar garages to produce electricity to recharge the battery in the electric cars or to use in the house or garden.

Several marine reserves exist around the island where it is forbidden to fish or to remove any type of sea life.

Biodegrable and other reusable Ògrocery bagsÓ have been for sale at the local grocery stores for several years. Many grocery stores on the island no longer provide plastic bags for use by customers.

Conservation of water has always been a priority. Although most homes today have access to city water, they also have cisterns, and that is the preferred source of water. Since St Barth is a dry island, water conservation has always been in effect.

Several beaches provide ashtrays in the form of soda cans at the entrance to the beach to prevent littering the beach with cigarette butts, whose filters contain many ingredients that are toxic to sea life.

One of the most recent undertakings was to provide composting kits to residents to reduce the amount of household waste. Starting on June 11, the Collectivity began distributing these kits, along with an instruction manual. After 10 days, 150 of the 300 kits available had been given away. With the heat and humidity on St Barth, compostable household waste becomes rich, usable compost in a matter of weeks.